{"id":736,"date":"2007-01-11T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-11T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=736"},"modified":"2007-01-11T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T13:08:00","slug":"imagine-they-held-a-winter-festival-and-forgot-to-invite-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2007\/01\/11\/imagine-they-held-a-winter-festival-and-forgot-to-invite-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagine they held a winter festival, and forgot to invite winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: Those of you reading from the Prairies <\/a>might want to breeze past this one. Sucks to be you, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Been a long time since I blogged about the weather. Did you know that as a Canadian citizen, we’re constitutionally obligated to discuss the weather at least 37 per cent of the time? And with a winter like this, especially with the undewhelming performance of the Senators (hockey being the other topic we are constitutionally obligated to discuss), there’s nothing else worthy of conversation.<\/p>\n

What the heck is up with this weather, anyway? It’s mid-January, and we’re still waiting for winter to arrive. We’ve had two, maybe three snowfalls, plus a few dustings. The temperatures have been in the range of ten or more degrees (Centigrade, bien s\u00c3\u00bbr<\/em>) above the norm almost every day. Quite frankly, as a cautionary tale on global warming, it’s scaring the hell out of me.<\/p>\n

Every February, Ottawa has a winter festival called Winterlude. Central to Winterlude is the Rideau Canal<\/a>, a 7.8 km skateway recently certifed by the Guiness people as the world’s longest. Also popular are the ice scupltures and the snow playground.<\/p>\n

Who would have imagined that Winterlude, nestled deep in the cold heart of February, would be in jeopardy due to unfreezing temperatures? In the Citizen today, they had a little graphic stating that we need at least 10 days of temperatures below -15C for the Canal to freeze. There are only 22 days until the start of Winterlude, and the long-term forecast doesn’t show a single day that will get that cold. <\/p>\n

To my great surprise, I’m finding that I’m actually missing the winter weather. I miss the way the snow insulates sound, so that when you go for a walk on a snowy winter evening, the world is peacefully silent except for the crunch and squeak of snow under your boots. I miss the ruddy hue on the boys’ chubby cheeks. I miss that biting, shocking blast of cold that snatches the air out of your lungs when you first step outside.<\/p>\n

Who knew it was possible to have a year without a winter? And who knew I’d be disappointed? It’s just not right, I tell you. There are some things we can count on, and a cold Canadian winter should be one of them. It’s just not right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: Those of you reading from the Prairies might want to breeze past this one. Sucks to be you, doesn’t it? Been a long time since I blogged about the weather. Did you know that as a Canadian citizen, we’re constitutionally obligated to discuss the weather at least 37 per cent of the time? And … Continue reading “Imagine they held a winter festival, and forgot to invite winter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants-and-rambles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}